Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday rejected the option of a military solution to Maoist violence, saying solving the problem with a “silver bullet” was not possible.

Home Minister @rajnathsingh and other dignitaries standing in silence as a mark of respect towards brave martyrs of the recent Maoist attack.(Image: PIB India/Twitter)

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday rejected the option of a military solution to Maoist violence, saying solving the problem with a "silver bullet" was not possible.

"We need short, medium and long-term solutions. Silver bullet is not an option," he told Chief Ministers, police chiefs and other senior officials of Naxal-hit states at a key meeting. The meeting comes a fortnight after 25 CRPF men were massacred by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.

While the chief ministers of Maharashtra, Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh attended the meeting, their counterparts in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were absent. Ministers of State (Home) Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Ahir and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were also present.

Reviewing the existing strategy to deal with Maoist-related violence, Rajnath Singh said the attacks like the one in Sukma were not just a failure of intelligence, but also a failure of imagination. "We must outmanoeuvre Naxals by being more imaginative in our proposed solutions and operations," Singh said.

Rajnath also coined a new acronym as part of the new strategy — SAMADHAN. "S is for Smart leadership, A for Aggressive strategy, M is Motivation and training, A is actionable intelligence, D Dashboard-based key results area, H stands for Harnessing technology, A is Action plan for each theatre and N means No access to financing," he said.

Criticising the leadership in Naxal-affected states, Rajnath said that a dynamic and proactive leadership is important to tackle the problem. He also proposed the idea of a unique identification number for gelatine sticks and explosive materials used by forces as well as biometrics for smart gun triggers. He said this was important to track down weapons looted by Maoists.

Meanwhile, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar questioned the Central government's anti-Naxal policy, saying the states were not given any monetary help to deal with Naxalism. Nitish, in his speech, said, "This meeting is to augment anti-Naxal forces, but states are not being given any monetary help for anti-Naxal training."

The Bihar CM also asked if the states were to do all the ground work, why such a meeting was taking place under Centre's auspices.